Rebuilding My Regimen

I know you have heard many transitioners or naturals talk about how their hair and its needs have changed over time. I can now attest to this. Products that use to work for my hair no longer work or don't work as well. Techniques that use to work are also no longer valid.

Here is an example: I use to wash my hair in one big section. As I got further into my transition I realized this method did not work as well for me. I experienced more breakage and tangles with this method. I learned quickly that I had to change my technique of detangling my hair to sectioning my hair into 2-4 sections depending on my hair's current state.

Because of changes in the state of my hair I realized I needed to rebuild my regimen. Figuring out what your regimen will be can be quite complicated if you make it. So many questions may run through your mind. How often should I wash my hair? What products do I use? Should my regimen change with the seasons? The truth of the matter is that you may not always know the answer to these questions right away. It may take some trial and error to discover what works for your hair. Your regimen could and should change over time. Keep in mind your should be consistent with your regimen to have a fair evaluation of what works for your hair and what does not. Remember no two head of hair is alike and what works for someone else may not work for you.

Some key components and steps that should be the basis of every hair regimen (in my opinion) include:

• Cleanser (shampoo or co-wash)
• Deep Condition
• Leave in conditioner
• Moisturizer
• Sealant (Butter or Oil)

Some things that you may want to include in your regimen, but may not be necessary for everyone includes:

• Pre-poo or pre shampoo treatment
• Hot oil treatment
• Tea rinse
• ACV Rinse
• Henna
• Clear rinse
• Steam treatment
• etc.

For my regimen I have had time to discover what works for me and so my regimen was created. These are the steps that will almost always be completed on my wash days:

1. Co-wash every two weeks. Clarifying my hair will replace a co-wash at least 1x a month.
2. Tea rinse at least 2x a month to reduce shedding
3. Deep condition either before or after co-wash/shampoo. When using a clarifying shampoo I will always deep condition after washing. When deep conditioning before I co-wash, I will follow up with a conditioner rinse. Conditioner rinse is referring to a 3-5 minute conditioning treatment to put moisture back into my hair.
4. Apply a leave in leave-in and possibly follow up with moisturizer (Note: My leave in may also be my moisturizer).
5. Apply a sealant which will more than likely be an oil.
6. Style as desired.

A few things that I may incorporate whenever I feel necessary will be clear rinses, pre-poo treatments, hot oil treatments, and oil rinses. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about my new regimen let me know. Again, thanks for following my journey! 

Organic Root Stimulator Olive Hair Masque

Ingredients: Aqua (Water) , Polysorbate 60 , PEG-150 Stearate , Cetyl Alcohol , Ceteareth 20 , PEG-20 Hydrogenated Lanolin , PEG 40 Stearate , Cocos Nucifera Oil (Coconut) , Polyquaternium-7 , Cetrimonium Chloride , Behentrimonium Methosulfate , Cetearyl Alcohol , Polyquaternium 37 , Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate , Dicaprate , PPG 1 Trideceth 6 , Glycerin , Dimethicone , PPG-3 Benzyl Ether Myristate , Hydrolyzed Keratin , Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Oil (Sweet Almond) , Olea Europaea Fruit Oil (Olive) , Panthenol , Hydrogenated Olive Oil , Amodimethicone , Trideceth 12 , Hydroxyethylcellulose , DMDM Hydantoin , Disodium EDTA , Citric Acid , Methylchloroisothiazolinone , Methylisothiazolinone , Caramel , Parfum (Fragrance) , Benzyl Benzoate , d-Limonene , Hexyl Cinnamal , Lilial , Linalool (From Walgreens.com)

Promises: An intense treatment conditioner that helps restore heat and color damaged hair. Infused with natural and other ingredients, this product will revitalize and detangle the hair, leaving it soft, shiny and smooth.

How to use: Remove excess water from hair after shampooing. Place hair masque in palm of hand, apply liberally to hair. Comb hair to ensure coverage from root to end. Let sit for five minutes without heat. For severely damaged hair, place a plastic cap over the hair and sit under a warm dryer for 10 minutes. Rinse hair thoroughly with warm water and proceed with styling. Not recommended for daily use.

My Review: One of the first things I noticed about this conditioner was how thick it was. It's thick, but it melts in your hair and doesn't seem to just coat your hair. I have tried this conditioned on dry hair and well as freshly washed hair and felt the conditioned melted into my hair. It smells really good to me. It has a sort of minty smell to it. It's not very strong unless you use too much and don't rinse it out well. This happened to me once. It makes my hair extremely soft! It seems to condition and detangle my hair all in one which is a plus. I do notice this this works better on my hair when it is freshly was opposed to dry hair. This may pose as a problem for me because I like to d/c on dry hair. It eliminates me having to jump back in the shower which can save me a lot of time. Another thing I didn't like about this conditioner is that if you use too much you have to rinse your hair thoroughly or your hair will flake. This happened to me when I was in a bit of a rush. I didn't notice the conditioner was in parts of my hair until I blow dried. Being that this conditioner melts into your hair you have to be very mindful in not applying too much. Overall I give this product a 8/10. I'm not sure if I will be repurchasing only because I prefer a conditioner that is not this thick.

Have your tried this product? What were your thoughts?

Wash Day

Saturday was a much needed wash day. I had done the bare minimal to my hair since I last posted of my wash day. Truthfully I'd been in a bit of a funk since I graduated and I'm in what I call "limbo" or between stages of my life. I'm studying for my boards(NCLEX) which I plan to take next month and looking for a job and things were not happening fast enough for me. I was reminded GOD is always on time and that things will fall in place the way HE wants. I have it bad trying to plan my life and getting disappointed when it doesn't work out my way. I'm slowly doing better with that. To top off my funky mood I have been having some medical issues. I'm not sure what is going on, but I hope to have some answers soon. Just keep me in your prayers!

On to my wash day. I decided to deep condition on dry hair for a couple of reasons. One, my hair loves it more than on wet hair. Two, I wanted to see if the Argon Oil Intense Conditioning treatment worked better on dry hair because so far the product was not on my list to repurchase. I mixed about 1 tsp each of honey, hemp oil, and EVOO with my conditioner. I mixed them together and applied to my hair with an applicator brush. I will definitely be making application of conditioner a part of my regimen. It's a little time consuming, but every strand was covered and moisturized. I left the conditioner on for about an hour with a plastic cap and a hat. This is one of my versions of DCing with heat until I get my dryer. When I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair it felt amazing!!! My hair was soft as butter and I finally realized what slip was! I washed with L'oreal EverStrong Hydrating shampoo. I love this stuff. For a sulfate-free shampoo it sure does lather up and clean the scalp very well. I think I'll do an official review sometime this week.

I detangled in the shower under running water and I think I like this method better than doing it after I get out the shower. My hair detangled with ease! I t-shirt dried for about 15 mins then I applied my leave in: CON Argon Oil Leave in and sealed with One N' Only Argon Oil. I airdried and wore a low pony tail.

Over all I can say this was a successful wash day. After my hair air dried it still felt super soft! Sorry I have no pictures.

Wash Day

Today’s wash day has been one of the most smooth I’ve had in a few months. I’ve had an epiphany about detangling. I’m also learning how to deal with my texlaxed hair and it seems like this will be a learning experience. I’m currently experiencing breakage which I’m sure is coming from the area where my bone straight hair meets my texlaxed hair. This area always seems dry despite the moisturizers I’ve used and co-washing. I think I will need to M&S every night to reduce the breakage. I’m going to come up with a plan to reduce breakage which I will share in a later post.

I used EVCO to detangle my hair and as a pre-poo. I think I will invest in a detangle spray. Now that I have a thicker texture, detangling with oil is not enough. As I was detangling I experienced breakage at the same area stated above. I kind of used ECP’s 3 comb method except I don’t use the same combs she does (one day when I get some extra cash I will invest in the first two combs she uses). I will be getting a new detangling comb in the very near future. Detangling went great. I lost far less hair than I normally do with detangling and this is even with the broken hair. After applying the EVCO I applied a cap, a microwaved towel, and another heat cap. This is my rendition of a heat cap until I get my hooded dryer. It works pretty well. I let it sit for about ten minutes before rinsing out in the shower.

I washed one time with my clarifying shampoo and one time with the L’Oreal EverStrong Shampoo. My hair felt like butter even before adding the deep conditioner. It actually felt extremely soft after detangling. I washed my hair in two halves parted from ear to ear. This method worked great and really helped out when applying the DC later. I DCed with ORS Replenishing Conditioner. I wanted something moisturizing yet with protein because I planned to blow dry and flat iron my hair. I used the same method to heat my head as I did with the pre-poo except I wrapped my towel around my head to keep in the heat. It worked great! I could feel the conditioner working. You know the tingling feeling on your scalp? I know I’m not the only one who experiences this.

Next I rinsed my conditioner out using cool water. This closes the cuticles of your hair shaft and makes your hair smooth. I towel dried for about 5 minutes. I normally t-shirt dry because it soaks up more of the water, but I was not home so I had to make do with what I had. I put in a very small amount of Cantu Shea Butter Leave-in and a generous amount of IC Fantasia Heat Protectant. I love this stuff and it is definitely a staple. I spilt my hair in four sections and gently detangled. Detangling was a breeze! I used my new blow dryer, Gold N Hot Professional 1875 watt, with the comb attachment to blow dry each section. I then flat ironed using my Babyliss Pro tool c8 I did one pass throughout most of my hair since it was blow dried fairly straight. I was very pleased with my results!

Sorry this post is so long. I didn’t realize it would be this lengthy and besides this blog doubles as my hair journal.

The Big Bad Detangling Wolf

Since I started I thought I had detangling down to a science. When I read about people taking 30+ minutes to detangle I always thought they were doing the most. After texlaxing my hair for the first time and dealing with texture I realized I wasn't doing enough! Since texlaxing I've been battling breakage. I DCed with a protein base conditioner last wash day and it seemed to help a bit.

Now I have up deal with the shed hairs. I have NEVER been able to get out all my shed hair when detangling. When I'm in the shower I have shed hair everywhere. I'm always utterly amazed when I see how little shed hair a lot of people get after detangling post wash. I'm amazed because this is from people who claim to only detangle once a week on wash days. From this I discovered that I'm clearly detangling wrong. Let me tell you about my old method then I will share what my new method will be.

My Old Method
There was nothing fancy or time consuming about detangling my hair with this method. I would section my hair into 2, 4, or sometimes one big section. It would take me maybe ten minutes to make my way from tip to root of my entire head. Slack, I know. I would always have some type of product on my hair when I detantagled. I never put a comb through dry hair. I would use one of the two wide tooth combs I own. Sometimes I even use the tangle teaser. I still don't know how I feel about the tangle teaser yet. I don't use it consistently enough.

My Proposed New Method
I plan to take my time with detangling. I will be separating my hair into multiple smaller sections. This method is to mainly ensure that I'm getting rid of as much shed hair as possible. I plan to invest into some new detangling combs. I was thinking of purchasing the Denman Brush, but I think it may be too rough for my fine hair. I will be making a trip to look at some detangling combs tomorrow before I wash my hair. After I have successfully detangled each section I will twist up each section an air-dry or style my hair as I desire.

I also plan to invest in some Organix Anti-breakage serum to address this breakage. It's on sale this week at Walgreens for $4.99. I've read and watched reviews on this product decreasing breakage tremendously. I'm almost sure this breakage is coming from me not properly caring for my newly texlaxed hair. It seems as if my texlax hair is so dry despite co-washing. I think I need to find a great moisturizer for my newly texlaxed hair. Maybe I will try Aloe Vera Juice. I follow quite a few bloggers/vloggers who use this product religiously.

If you have any suggestions on detangling or moisturizers for texlaxed hair please share. I'm open to any and all ideas.

Before I run off I want to say hello to all my new subscribers. Thanks for subbing and I hope that you find something on my blog that is useful to you. Leave me a line so that I can check out your blogs!

Until next time you all remain blutiful and blessed. HHG!